Mr Murphy said the Government was not being properly held to account. The failure of the Department of Health to properly charge for nursing home beds means the State must pay a compensation bill that could reach 2 billion. In its inquiry report, the Oireachtas Health and Children Committee said there was “an urgent need” to clarify “the responsibilities of Ministers and the extent to which they can reasonably be held accountable for the actions of the department and agencies under their charge”.

The clear implication of his remarks was that ministerial responsibility had been well established over the past 80 years.

I think it was also a thinly hidden criticism of the pathetic opposition offered by FG/LABOUR.

He said that the Dail and Seanad had “neither the capacity nor willingness to hold the government responsible to it” as provided by the constitution.

Aprivate nursing bed can cost 50,000 euro, but it costs nearly 100,000 euro to look after a prisoner.
prisoners are able to fend for themselves many pensioners need help to wash, eat and dress.

Some prisoners are suing for more of the tax payers money for having to slop out their cells.–some elderly persons in the care homes end up soiling their beds because care workers wont bother answering their calls of distress.

Prison food is almost what one would expect in a restraunt the exact opposite to what one would generally find in the nursing homes.

Some nursing homes critisise families-a lot of the time with justification–for failing to provide clothes and other bodily essentials=In prison these are provided free.

Prisoners have Tv and recreational facilities-some nursing home residents are confined to bed and never see daylight.

some residents of nursing homes have all their personal belongings taken from them-often money stolen–AH sure he/she is only doting.

I’d rather be a prisoner than a pensioner any day.

George

Very interesting stuff there Mick,

81% of people in the Irish Republic still see the Good Friday Agreement as a good thing with only 3% seeing it as a bad thing. So much for it being dead as unionism keeps saying. Maybe the strand that involves the internal governance of NI is.

The only reference to NI shows a majority of around 70% there unhappy with how democracy is developing while south of the border 70% are now satisfied.

You could say Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are opposite images of each other when it comes to attitudes towards the functioning of democracy.

In the Republic, the survey says there is no difference in the attitudes across class, indicative of the lack of ideological fault lines and of an egalitarian concept to democracy.

The idea of someone being treated unfairly because they are of a minority religion registers as an issue with just 1%, while being from a disadvantaged area is at 18%, disabled 14%, elderly 10%, gay/lesbian 10%, carers 8%, ethnic minority 6%.

Although, for some strange reason, those with a third level education are more ambivalent about breaking the law.

martin

2 armed garda, one drunk while on duty , got involved in a fight outside the US embassy. they have been suspended.

5 Garda involved in running something similar to Abu Garaib in Donegal —have been transferred to Dublin.——-Anyone see a problem ?